The words behind your anime

The Discards of Matsumi Kuro

Achiga-hen might not be perfect, but it can be damn impressive when it wants to.

Like here:

In the scene pictured above, Harue dukes it out with the Achiga girls, but nobody’s faces or positions are revealed for the game shown.

Question: Who is sitting to Harue’s left?

Hint:

Long story short, Kuro discards her tiles upside down, always. You can tell where she’s sitting without having her on screen, or make a game out of looking for animation inconsistencies regarding this little quirk of hers. I found one, but the care with which the people behind the show flip Kuro’s tiles upside down, even when those are shown at angles making it almost impossible to read them, is beyond impressive.

To some extent, though, this is nothing unusual for the staff of this show. We have tiles ending upside down after getting shuffled…

…and Kuro’s not the only one whose personality shows in the tiles.

Kuro to the right, neat-freak Nodoka at the bottom, Ako and Shizuno with a much less orderly style (as you would expect from primary school kids)… but they get better at it, eventually.

Well then, Question #2: What’s up with Kuro’s discarding style?

Hint:

Kuro was the oldest mahjong player in Achiga’s little club full of children taking their first steps in the game. And since she just can’t help being a sweetheart at every opportunity, she most likely got into the habit of discarding tiles in the way that makes them the easiest to read for beginner players. And old habits die hard.

I wanted to gush a little more: I like the way you presented the particular insight slowly and connected the dots at the end. It also helps that the reason you’re inferring (or I’m inferring) is a pretty DAWWWW one.